Communion

I have treasured memories being called to family dinners at
Lucknow in New Hampsire by my
grandmother playing a Tiffany dinner chime. When we moved to our home in
Riverside, I obtained a dinner chime (a
humble dining car steward's chime) to hang in our own dining room.

I hold the old dinner chime like a child,

Cradling its resonance against my heart.

My arms embrace the ancestral xylophone

As dining car priests in journeys before me

Raised so the wood chalice of memory.

I play in my turn the communion tune

Shimmer forth from struck steel bars the warm brilliant
tones

Calling my family to the dining room,

To share celebration with families past

The common prayer of the evening repast.

Benediction for My Father

My father (d. 1992) loved the outdoor life in New Hampshire,
including hunting deer. He taught me to hunt deer when I was a teenager. I
obtained some of my fondest memories of New Hampshire's beautiful countryside
while hunting.